Best of

the Twin Cities

BEST BAKERY

Franklin Street Bakery

The chewy chocolate meringue has a glossy crackle on top and goes crunch just before it starts to melt on your tongue. The apple pecan coffee cake tastes like it's from the best church-basement fellowship brunch ever. The cupcakes are light, petite, almost silky, and topped with swirls of buttery frosting that stay just this side of decadent. The cakes ($27.50 to $32.50 for a decorated eight-inch round) are classic, elegant, and refined. (Who needs an oversized, overstuffed, over-the-top cake, when what matters is how it tastes?) And hiding in the pastry case are the things that are truly incomparable because nobody else has anything like them. The rosemary corn cake ($1.25) is a triangle of fragrant, nutty, crunchy goodness—what the scone's American cousin really should be. The individual savory brioches and focaccias ($1.25 to $3.50) are the best breakfast grab bag in town: Will it be caramelized onions and Brie or wild mushrooms and Asiago today? And the croissant stuffed with real ham and sharp cheese? Don't even try comparing them to breakfast sandwiches elsewhere.